Lucky fliers capitalised on a computer glitch yesterday to secure some
generously priced flights with Delta Air Lines

From about 10a.m to noon (1500 GMT to 1700 GMT), a number of Delta fares, sold on the airline's own website and other booking sites, were showing up incorrectly, offering some savvy bargain hunters incredible deals.

Return flights between Cincinnati and Minneapolis, for example, for departures in February, were being sold for just $25.05, while fares between Cincinnati and Salt Lake City were available for $48.41. The correct price for both of those journeys was more than $400.

Trebor Banstetter, a spokesman for the Atlanta-based airline, said the problem has been fixed but confirmed that "Delta will honor any fares purchased at the incorrect price."

Jackie Fanelli, 27, learned about the faulty fares from a friend's Facebook page. She attempted to purchase a $98 return first-class ticket from her home city of Baltimore to Honolulu on Priceline.com but the transaction didn't process before the deal was shut down.

"It was too good to be true," Ms Fanelli said. "I try to go away every other year and this was not the year."

Delta's website was still experiencing increased traffic on Thursday afternoon.

"It looks like Delta's programmers had a little too much eggnog yesterday," joked George Hobica, founder of AirfareWatchDog.com, a website which promotes airfare sales.

It's likely that the airline tried to tweak its fares with a $10 or $20 system-wide change and a junior programmer made a mistake or two, he said.

"People just go wild. People have been bragging about booking six first-class tickets to Hawaii," Mr Hobica said. "People hate the airlines so much that when this happens, they say: I'm going to get back at you for the time you broke my suitcase and didn't pay for it."

Other airlines have faced the same issue. In September United Airlines experienced an error in filing fares to its computer system. Many customers got tickets for $5 or $10, paying only the cost of the September 11 security fee introduced after the 2001 terrorist attacks.

New U.S. Department of Transportation regulations, aimed at tackling false advertising, require airlines to honor any erroneous fares offered.